We are wrapped in cotton cloth at birth, we wear it until we die, and we are again wrapped in it for burial. Especially in Korea, we use cloth as a symbolic material on important occasions such as coming of age ceremonies, weddings, funerals, and rites for ancestors. Therefore, cloth is thought to be more than a material, being identified with the body—that is, as a container for the spirit.

When a person dies, his family burns the clothes and sheets he used. This may have the symbolic meaning of sending his body and spirit to the sky, the world of the unknown. When I look back over my more than twenty years of handling bedcovers, I feel that I have always been performing, guided by piles of cloth I have lived among. What in the world have I stitched and patched? What have I tied up in bundles? When will the journey of my needle end, my silkworm unwrap its flesh? Will it in the end, slough off its skin? Will the bundles with no destination find their way to go?

The Clara database is no longer being updated. This database will be retained as an access point for our artist files. Artist profiles are now a featured component on the NMWA website. For artists who are not in our collection: we are in the process of creating a user-submitted registry that will be available by 2015. Thank you for your patience as we create new content to better serve researchers, members, and artists.